Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Riley is going to be a candy corn this year so her costume is a white, orange and yellow tutu for the bottom half and a white top with a candy corn on it for the top half. What you see in the pictures above is only part of her outfit. Yesterday I put her tutu on her so she'd get used to it and initially, she cried and didn't like it. She actually wouldn't put her arms down by her side because the tutu is a bit itchy. She also wouldn't sit at all and if she felt the tutu rub on her legs, she would cry out. However mommy didn't give in and after a while, I think she got used to it!

Tonight we are going to this event called, "Trunk or Treat" at our church. Basically people sign up to bring their cars and you decorate the trunk however you want. Bob is doing a Disney's Haunted Mansion theme and so far it looks great! He's out in the garage right now as I'm typing this getting the trunk all ready. There's a black light, fog machine, mini haunted house, flickering fake candles, and more! The church is providing the candy to fill each trunk and basically at the end of the night, there is a contest for the best decorated trunk. Bob is going to dress up with a suit, top hat and a white face and look like he's a dead butler or something.

I'm going to take Riley around to the different vehicles and let her get some candy and then she can run around and play. I wonder how she'll react to seeing so many people dressed up..including daddy! :-)

I will take pictures of both Riley, Bob and Bob's truck and post them on my blog within a couple of days. Hope you have a happy Halloween!

Sunday Afternoon Family Time

On Sunday afternoon, we decided to go back and visit Painted Oaks Academy again because they were having a huge family weekend with face painting, a bounce house, etc. We went around 4 and it was actually a bit disappointing compared to the other day when Riley and I went with our MOPS group.

This time all of the animals were put away in cages. There were very few pumpkins, the bounce house was rather dirty and it was just packed with people. We stayed a few minutes and got some snapshots and then left.

I think the best part about the whole trip was Bob had the red jeep from work and he took the roof off. So we were able to have a fun ride out there and a fun ride back. Riley absolutely loved it too with the wind blowing all around. That I think was the best part :-)

Riley Loves Honey Nut Cherrios!

This picture is from yesterday when Riley and I went to Capehart park with our playgroup. They had these huge blow up figures right at the park's entrance so I ran ahead to snap a picture of Riley walking by the scarecrow. The problem is that as she got closer to it, she started screaming! So I snapped really quick and then went to pick her up. Not so found of Mr. Scarecrow! He did his job in scaring her alright!

On another note, Riley's new favorite breakfast item is cereal! I wish I had a picture of her eating Cherrios this morning :-) Over the last few days, she has been wanting my Honey Nut Cheerios that I eat so I've been spoon feeding her some of mine from the bowl and she LOVES it. Maybe it's the milk or maybe it's because it's sweeter when the Cherrios are soggy, but either way, Riley has been devouring cereal from my own bowl.

So today I decided that I would pour her own bowl of Honey Nut Cherrios! I sat down next to her (because she sits at the table now like a big girl) and I held the bowl while she perfectly ate her own little bowl of cereal. It made me kind of sad to watch her eat her first bowl of cereal because to me it seemed like she was all grown up already! She did drop a few here and there but for the most part, a ton made it into her mouth. I have decided though that I will have to hold onto her bowl for a while so it doesn't end up turning over and sending Cherrios flying :-)

Little Black Cat Dress

The other day when the really cute Halloween pajamas arrived, so did this adorable little cat dress! Mimi and Poppy sent this as well and Riley looked so cute when we went to church on Sunday! I had to pin it in the back because it was a bit wide, but that's just because Riley has the same problem that I had growing up! Everything length wise fits perfectly! However most stuff is too wide when it's just right in the length. She is long and lanky like I was and dresses are so hard to fit right. After I pinned it though, it was perfect on her, length and width! :-)

Now we just have to find shoes! That girl has the widest feet so trying to find any shoes that actually fit her in length and width is hard...kind of the same battle with trying to find dresses!

The first couple of pictures are of her playing on Sunday morning while Bob and I were getting ready. She loves to play with Elmo's crate because it's fun to put stuff in there and close the door. We have found many things in Elmo's crate before, most recently a sippy cup.

Then when we arrived at church, I snapped a few of Riley and Bob together because I thought they looked so cute :-) Bob still has to bend over slightly to hold her hand; however I'm sure before we know it, she'll be gaining on him! Hopefully not too soon though. She's still my little baby!

The last picture is of her in the nursery playing with the rings. She was very happy when we first got there but quickly faded. By noon she is usually ready for a nap but since she skips her morning nap these days, we try to stretch naptime until 1. This way she'll sleep from 1-3:30 and then last until bedtime.

Thanks Mimi and Poppy for the adorable dress! Riley makes for a great looking cat :-)

p.s.-Her tutu arrived in the mail...yay! Can't wait to post pictures of Riley in her Halloween outfit.

Orange and White Halloween pj's

Mimi and Poppy recently sent Riley this adorable Halloween pajama set and I had to take pictures of Riley and put them on here :-) The outfit is SO ADORABLE!

The first pictures are of Riley in her Halloween pajamas right after bath. They fit perfectly and I really think Orange is a cute color on her :-) That night we read some books after bath and I tried to hold the camera out and take a few shots of Riley reading. A few times she stared at the camera like it was some crazy foreign object. However one of the times she is just looking so intently at the book she is reading and I would just love to know what is going on in that little mind of hers!

The pictures of Riley with dry hair are the next morning when she is being super cuddly with her care bear and blanky. Let me just tell you, she LOVES that blanket! As you can see also, when I give Riley any snacks in the morning, I now have to bring her in the kitchen, put the gate up and then give her something. Otherwise Elmo will eat it! He snatches it right out from her hand...insane dog!

Painted Oaks Petting Farm Part 2

Painted Oaks Petting Farm

Okay so it's been a few days since I've blogged and I feel like I'm SO BEHIND! I have tons of pictures to put on here so I've got to get crack-a-lackin! First, our trip to Painted Oaks Petting Farm. Riley and I went Thursday of this past week with our MOPS group (Mothers of Preschoolers). We had SUCH a blast! I didn't realize how much Riley would LOVE the animals. I mean, I can totally tell that she loves animals but WOW! I wasn't expecting her reactions :-) They were adorable!

Admission was free to get in which was great and they literally had animals everywhere! MOPS wanted everyone to dress his/her child in their Halloween costume but unfortunately, Riley's hadn't arrived in the mail yet. So I dressed her in this fall dress that Nana got her instead. Some of the pictures have kids with costumes and that's why :-)

When we first got there, Riley walked right up to this dog (who walked right to her in about 2 seconds) and started petting him and I about had a heart attack because I didn't know if he was dangerous or not. However one of the workers saw and said, "All of the animals that are out are friendly." So then I got my camera ready and snapped a picture just as Riley leaned in to kiss the dog. YUCK!

I took pictures in various locations as you can see. I tried to get some great picture moments in settings they had created around the farm but Riley wasn't really having it. She again didn't like the barrel of hay and pretty much started crying when I tried to set her on it. She also didn't really want any pictures with the pumpkins. There were some pumpkins as big as Riley too! They must have been on steroids or something :-) They had a really cute gazebo that I did get a few shots of Riley playing in. There was also this horse like swing that I pushed Riley on and she really enjoyed it.

I think the BEST PART about the entire place...well actually, it's a toss up. They had this small pen filled with 2 rabbits and a baby goat. You were allowed to put your child in the pen with the 3 animals so I lifted Riley in. I wasn't exactly prepared for her to walk right over and try to step on the bunny's head. I think I yelped, screamed, shouted or something and then and jumped over that pen so fast! I then calmly said, "Riley honey, you don't step on the bunny's head. You pet him gently." So she started to do that. The gross part that I had to try and keep preventing was that she wanted to kiss all of them! This is how she shows love and it's really so adorable but NOT with these dirty rabbits and goat! So I had to stand in the small pen with all of the children and tower over Riley so I could jump at any moment if she tried something :-)

The other awesome part about this experience were the 2 baby ponies out on the grass eating. They were just standing around and Riley was THRILLED. She walked right over with absolutely NO FEAR and started petting the ponies. They were just chillin and eating. You could tell that they were used to this all the time. Riley was smiling, petting, clapping, laughing, etc. It was so cute!

I personally liked the rooster. He was very loud and kept cock-a-doodle-doo'ing like crazy! It was fun because it reminded me of two things. First, there was this farm that Jennifer's aunt used to live on. It was in Norfolk, Virginia and I used to love to listen to the roosters in the morning. My grandfather also had roosters on his small 5 acre farm here in Oviedo when he was living and they were always making noise in the morning :-) Sadly, most of the foxes ate those roosters.

Okay I have a million pictures of this place and it was REALLY hard to pick just 10 for this blog. Sooooo, I am doing 2 blogs with pictures. This way I can get all of the really cute ones in :-) Enjoy!